14 Alec Wilson on 



Before starting the actual building of a ship the ground 

 mnst be pi-ei)ared, and one of the slides showed the slip way in 

 preparation for building the Olympic. The piling is filled in 

 with concrete and the whole sheeted over with heavy boiler 

 plate. Above the slipway is the great travelling gantry, these 

 cranes costing about £120,000. 



The keel is laid upon the top of the keel blocks placed to 

 receive it. In a modern steamer this keel is merely a flat iron 

 bar, Avhose only use is to take the keel blocks when the ship is 

 dry docked. Upon this keel is erected the keel plate, which 

 forms a sort of si)inal column for the future vessel. The lower 

 part, or tank, of the ship is then proceeded with, and after its 

 completion the stern post is fitted and the rib framing begun. 

 The steel castings for the stern frame are not made in Belfast ; 

 rudder, stern post, and propeller brackets together weigh about 

 120 tons. 



Materials are brought to the building slip by a narrow 

 gauge tramway, of which there is a length of about fifty miles in 

 the works. 



When the framing aproaches completion the deck beams are 

 begun. In Fig. III. can be seen the framing, beams, and stanchions 

 of the '' Oceanic." The whole ship is of course one immense iron 

 girder, and its strength depends largely on the design and con- 

 struction of the sub-girders as developed by the builders. The 

 great hollow stanchions are cylindrical, built like masts from 

 steel plates, and placed amidships in three rows, narrowing to 

 two, and then right aft and forward to one row only. 



When the framing is completed the plating is begun, and the 

 hydraulic rivetters are concentrated upon those portions upon 

 which there are special stresses, principally along the bilges 

 and sheer strakes. The plates are commonly doubled at these 

 parts, the thickness of the steel skin thus being about 2i inches 

 and the diameter of the rivets Ig inch. It is easily understood 

 therefore why machine rivetting is necessary to close such heavy 

 work propei'ly and economically. 



